What is hard water, and what is it doing to your hair? Spoiler: It could be the cause of your brittle and discoloured hair By Ana Eksouzian-Cavadas
Each time you leave your front door, your hair comes up against a number of external elements, many of which threaten to damage the quality of your hair. However, while we've been busy trying to protect our locks from environmental damage , there's been a seemingly unlikely culprit sabotaging our hair from within the home: 'hard water'.
"Hard Water is when water [contains] a high mineral content, usually minerals including calcium and magnesium," cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson revealed on cult beauty podcast Fat Mascara . "These excess minerals can build up in your hair and cause it to look dull, change the feel and even shift the color."
Long-term exposure to hard water can also make your hair more difficult style, according to Allure .
If you suspect that your water at home may be of the 'hard' variety, Fat Mascara suggest picking up a hard water test kit to gauge its quality.
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But worry not! Hard water-effected hair has a fairly simple fix. "To solve this, use a chelating shampoo," said Robinson. "These work to remove the heavy build-up of minerals. Look for shampoos that say they're chelating shampoos, or have the ingredient EDTA in them, which works to bind the minerals [in the hair] so that they can be rinsed away." A post shared by R+Co (@randco) on Dec 28, 2017 at 8:14am PST Try these chelating shampoos to nix dry and dull, hard water hair: Bumble And Bumble